The Far Side of the Looking Glass
by Jeice Lover
Summary: There exists two worlds, separated by barriers of reflections. Once every hundred years, a bridge spans between the two worlds, formed by the very walls which separate it. However, not all bridges are meant to be crossed, as dark things may lie on the far side. When Jaune is pulled to the other side, he will need the aid of those from the far side, who are the enemy on his.
1. Chapter 1

The sound of heavy breathing echoed through the dark, muggy alley as a lone figure ran through it. The sound of his footsteps shot away from his feet, ricocheted off of the walls of the stone buildings on either end, came back to him, and made one more attempt for the walls that died out and left nothing but a faint patter behind. He could feel a stitch stinging into his side, and his lungs felt heavy, despite how in shape they ought to be from his running so much normally.

He heard the slice of sharp metal rushing through the air behind him, and had just enough time to whip around his weapon and fired into the night. The sounds of ammunition meeting explosives was almost deafening in the silence, and he almost winced at the sound. Well, they had already found him, so no harm in a bit of noise now.

"He's over here! Come on!" A curse slipped through his teeth as he tried to run for it again. However, it appeared that, this time, his escape routes had run out. He was forced to jump backwards as the ground before his feet went up in fire and searing hot bits of gravel and asphalt. He gripped his weapon and fired again in the direction of his pursuers. By this point, though, just a few shots would not be enough.

A wall of whipping cloth caught his eye, and he glanced over to that side, only to see a painfully familiar red cloak off to his side. On his other side, he could see the glint of a metal chest-plate blocking his possible escape into the building through a window. Before and behind him were both blocked as well, by two who were wielding weapons and murderous, gleeful stares.

At last, he saw the crimson-cloaked figure off to his right approach, and he narrowed his eyes as he saw the moonlight reflecting off of her smiling, mirthless silver eyes.

"Looks like your luck has finally run out, Roman."

–

"Come on, Jaune, you can do it. Just focus your energy into your hands, it's not difficult. Just let it flow naturally." Jaune stared into his hands as Pyrrha's encouragements flowed into his ears. He could do it, he could, he just needed a bit of focus... He felt his chest tighten up, his hands tensed, his entire body aching and his head starting to feel looser and lighter... "Okay, Jaune, that's enough. Please stop holding your breath before you hurt yourself."

At last, Jaune let go of the breath he wasn't even aware that he was holding, and his hands fell into his lap as he panted heavily. His face returned to its normal color after a minute of catching his breath. When he finally had the air in his lungs for it, he groaned with disappointment in himself. Pyrrha reached over and gently patted his shoulder.

"Don't feel down on yourself, Jaune. You're improving immensely still. With just a bit more time and practice, I'm certain that you'll find your semblance any day now." Pyrrha smiled, trying to be encouraging, but Jaune only sighed tiredly.

"Any day now isn't a time, Pyrrha," he sighed. "The Vytal festival isn't too far off. I need to be able to fight, but I also have to be able to use my aura. And I can't do that right without being able to use my semblance. I'm getting better, but not fast enough." He gazed down at the roof beneath their feet, sighing heavily. Pyrrha looked at him with sympathy in her eyes, and gave him another pat before retracting her hand.

"You did well this evening, Jaune, I think we're done for the night. What you need now is some rest, and some of Ren's pancakes to lift your spirits again. What do you say?" She gave him a chipper smile, but Jaune just scratched his head a bit.

"...If it's all the same to you, Pyrrha, I think I'm gonna' go for a walk, clear my head a bit... Alone." Pyrrha's face fell a bit, but she nodded understandingly.

"...Alright then. Just come back to the dorm whenever you're done with your walk. I'll have Ren wrap your pancakes for you."

"Thanks, Pyrrha." The partners said their brief goodbyes, and went their separate ways. Jaune made his way out of the dorm building, through the courtyard, and eventually stopped at the fountain out in front of the school. He sat down on the concrete edge of the small structure, then sighed as he gazed into the water.

Oh, what was the point of it all, really? He was getting places, but not fast enough, and nowhere close to where he wanted and needed to be. He wasn't going to give up after all of this, that was for certain. Sometimes he just needed a little pity party for some reason, just to vent out the negative feelings. So he had one here, gazing down at his own reflection on the top of the fountain water.

However, there was something odd in the image he was seeing.

The French blond leaned down closer to the water, eyes narrowed as he tried to see what it was that was down there. He couldn't quite describe it really. There was something off with his reflection, or maybe it was something about the water? He really couldn't say what it was. He leaned in closer and closer, eyes narrowed as he tried to figure out what it was. Finally, his face hovering just an inch or so above the reflective surface, the tip of his nose just barely dipped into the water with just one last little lean forward.

In that moment, he felt as though something had grabbed onto the front of his sweat-shirt, and yanked him down and forward. He cried out, tried to backpedal and get away, but it was too late. He found himself falling forward into the image of himself, inexplicably grinning even as his own face was filled with fear and shock. Until, finally, he plunged face-first into a watery blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

The NPR of JNPR lounged about on their beds, eating Ren's homemade pancakes and talking about nothing. It was fairly quiet, and uneventful, until Pyrrha began to feel a small amount of concern. Namely for the person meant for the slowly cooling stack of pancakes sitting in the microwave.

"Jaune is a bit late in returning, don't you think?" she asked. Ren considered this as his finished chewing the bite of pancake that he had in his mouth, and only spoke after he had swallowed.

"He _is_ taking a while with his walk, but I wouldn't worry about it too much. He probably just got distracted watching the stars, or maybe he saw a squirrel. He'll come back in his own time." Pyrrha sighed and took another bite of pancakes.

"I suppose you're right," she murmured thoughtfully past the sweet, bready food.

The team continued to eat, chewing their pancakes thoughtfully in silence. Just as Ren was about to see to requests for seconds, there was the sound of a key turning in the lock on their door, and Jaune appeared in the newly-opened doorway.

"I'm back, anyone miss me?" he greeted. He sniffed the air a bit, and let out a satisfied hum at the scent floating in the air. "Hmm, pancakes~ Any chance of some of those left over for me?" Pyrrha smiled at their leader's return.

"Welcome back, Jaune. And of course, I made certain to have Ren save you a plate. Would you like for me to warm it up for you?" Jaune smiled and nodded at the redhead's question.

"Please do, I'm starving."

–

"Do you think he's alright?" "He's fine, he's just unconscious. He'll probably wake up soon." "How could this have happened? We were so careful-" "It's not your fault, they got us good this time, that's all there is to it." "Still, we have to fix this soon or else-"

Jaune let out a slight groan as he came to, under the sound of all the different voices who seemed to be chattering all at once. The many different voices immediately stopped, and their owners directed their gazes at him.

"Guys, he's waking up." Blue orbs opened slowly to a world that was slightly blurry. He could see the vague shapes of many faces as he looked up at all of them. However, at the sound of approaching footsteps, they cleared away from his line of vision.

"Step back a moment, give the boy some breathing room." A female voice cut through the new silence, and all took a few steps away from him. Jaune pushed himself up to a sitting position, and immediately held his head as he felt a massive rush to it. A soothing hand placed itself on his back, bracing him from falling backwards again. "Easy now, you've had a big shock, try not to push yourself too much."

"Urgh..." he felt sick to his stomach, almost as bad as when his red tree sap allergies kicked in. Still, he managed to remain sitting up, and took a look about the room. There were about five people standing there, looking at him. There was a girl with green hair and red eyes, a silver-haired boy, a girl in a red dress, a girl in a white dress, and an older man with a goatee. Looking to his side, where the gentle hand was still supporting him, he saw a black-haired woman whose age he really couldn't determine, her burning eyes looking at him with gentle concern.

"What is your name, young man?" The woman asked gently. "Do you remember what happened to you?" Jaune clenched his eyes and rubbed his head, trying to remember what had happened.

"Urgh, well... My name is Jaune, Jaune Arc," he managed. The woman nodded at his response, seeming pleased.

"Good. Now, do you remember what happened the last time you were conscious? Think hard, we want you to remember as much as possible on your own." Jaune narrowed his eyes in concentration, trying to think back to what he last remembered.

"I... I was going out for a walk and... I stopped at the fountain out in front of the school." He didn't stop for a second to consider if these people knew what he was talking about when he mentioned Beacon, but that could be chalked up to the grogginess and the fuzzy feeling in his head. "I was sitting at the edge, and... I... thought I saw..._something_ in the fountain." He was proud of himself for recollecting that, all things considered at the moment. "I leaned over to look in and... I think someone pushed me in?" He wasn't certain on that note, but that was the best that he could do at the moment. "And after that... all I know is that I'm here now... wherever 'here' is."

The onyxette beside him sighed, sounding tired, as though she had just received some bad, but not unexpected, news.

"I expected as much," she sighed heavily. "...Well, I suppose it's only fair we told you our names, since we know yours." She placed a hand on her own chest and said, "my name is Cinder." The same hand went out and motioned to all of the other people in the room. "This is Emerald, Mercury, Melanie, Miltia, and Junior."

"Um... hi." He was feeling a bit better at this point, less groggy, and sat up away from Cinder's supporting hand, which she then retracted to her side. "Um... it's nice to meet you all but... what happened?...And where am I?"

"You're in my club," the man named Junior answered from the background. "We found you unconscious and... well, there aren't that many places we can trust here. So we thought it best if we brought you to mine." Cinder gave him a look, then looked back to Jaune.

"Well... I'm afraid that you're a bit further from home than just in another building," she said softly. "The thing is... you weren't pushed into that fountain. You were _pulled_, into our world here."

"Wait... _pulled_... _your world_?" Jaune looked at all of them uncomprehendingly. The woman sighed again, and looked at the green-haired girl, Emerald. The teen nodded and walked over to a far wall, where a large, ornate mirror hung.

"Maybe it'd better if we just showed you," Emerald said. She walked over to the mirror, and pressed her finger against the glass. She traced an intricate sign across its surface, then stepped back as the mirror glowed. She cleared her throat briefly, then spoke aloud. "Ahem... Jaune Arc." The mirror glowed a moment longer, then cleared to a sharp image of a familiar scene.

"Hey! That's my dorm room!" Indeed it was, and there was an image of Ren, Nora, Pyrrha, and... _himself_?! All of them were sitting around, eating pancakes, and talking. "What the... that's not me! What the heck!? Who's that there with my team!?" The silver-haired boy, Mercury scratched his head.

"Well, the thing is... that sort of _is_ you with your team. Just not... _you_ you." Jaune stared at him, completely baffled, and Mercury just sighed and looked to Cinder. "You should tell him, you can explain all this d_oppelgänger_stuff better than I can."

"Right, I suppose," Cinder sighed. She came around in front of Jaune, and held up her hands with her fingers forming circles. "You see, Jaune, it's like this. You and your people believe that there is only your world, alone in the universe, going about its business. However, what you are unaware of is that there is actually a _second_ world. Exactly the same as your own, only with things switched opposite the way you have them in your world." She brought her hands together, so that the two circles they formed met. "About once every one hundred years, there comes a week leading up to the full moon when the two worlds are the closest. At this point, it is possible for those in our world to enter yours.

"However, there comes a cost for us moving over to your world. In order for one of us to enter your world, it is necessary to switch places with our selves from the opposite world. This is what we know as the D_oppelgänger__Effect. A person from our world take the place of those in yours, and in turn, the one from your world." Jaune stared at her a moment._

_"Wait, so you're saying... the me from this world, wants to replace me over in my world?"_

_"_That's the gist of it, yeah," Mercury shrugged. "But let me tell you just one thing, the guy who took your place, he's not like you in the slightest."

–

Later on, evening came, and Team JNPR was changed and asleep. Well... most of it was, anyhow. A certain blond stirred in his bed, then slowly sat up and looked at them all. After being satisfied with the belief that he was the only one awake, he smirked and tip-toed his way into the bathroom, carefully locking the door behind him.

He went over to the mirror, then traced his fingertip against it in an intricate symbol. He only had to wait a moment before another set of eyes appeared in the glass, and he smirked triumphantly.

"Hey, it's me... yeah, I'm in. No, they don't suspect a thing. They all think I'm their goofy, lovable, brave-hearted leader... Yeah, don't worry, I'll have it for you. I'll get you over here too in no time. Give me a couple of days, and you'll be over here with me, and we can begin the next phase."


End file.
